When The Polar Bears Are Gone - A Dream
Below is a dream shared by a Borderlander. It is representative of the increasing number of dreams appearing in clinical practice and across the world. It is one way in which the collective unconscious is communicating the global ecological crisis.
We welcomed your insights and comments on the Between Borderlanders Forum.
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It's early evening - getting dark, but not quite. The ground is ice - I'm standing with a child - not mine - and a polar bear - altho I don't notice him at first. The frozen water - ocean I guess - suddenly opens up from the footstep of the child and he falls in a hole. I can't even see him - it happened so fast. I think about jumping in after him but I know I'll die. I know he's gone. I am crushed. Now I see the polar bear - he goes in the hole - all beauty and grace, but it's as if he is being swallowed up by the water. He tries to get out but can't. I shove my hand into the hole, his head is barely above the icy water - I stick my fingers into his open mouth to try and get a grip so I can pull him out. He doesn't bite, he's working with me to help him but he slips and begins to sink. I reach in deeper and try to grab his paw, his arm. I can feel his wet pads and his claws but he's not attacking at all. He's holding on - I'm pulling. I woke up composing a poem called "When the polar bears are gone."
After writing the dream, I also wrote: I woke up thinking about their heart beat no longer beating in the world, the absence of that beat, the loss of their energy in the world, and the world slowly depleting.
I have very strong feelings about the dream, mostly sadness with a shred of hope, but I'm not adept at translating those feelings into thoughts. I have the sense there is something I am supposed to do, but I can't "get a grip" on it.
What Are your Thoughts and Other Reactions to this Dream?
Living in the Borderland addresses the evolution of Western consciousness and describes the emergence of the 'Borderland,' a spectrum of reality that is beyond the rational yet is palpable to an increasing number of individuals.
Comments
book recommendation
Mr. Bernstein, you might want to read Peter Hoeg's book Borderliners.
response to Polar Bear dream post
To the Borderlander with the Polar Bear dream. The dream is a beautifully simple graphic image communicating powerfully in itself. As for this sense of what you should do with it - other than campaigning directly on behalf of bears and other species loss - I'd say, live with the dream, carry it always just beneath the surface of your thinking day, visit it often and it will continue to unfold in your own life and give you the direction you seek.
One possible ?/clue I see is the minor character, the child who falls in first, whose loss is accepted as final and inevitable by your dreaming self, and whose disappearance into the hole doesn't provoke you to reach in - you feel powerless perhaps but don't seem as moved by it as the loss of the bear. There is some disjunction here, therefore I think there is something fertile, unfinished here for you. I note that the child is only described as "not yours". I see some powerful symbolism here, but that is not for me to interpret definitively for you. I can only raise questions, hint at possibilities. It is your dream, your puzzle to solve. I am reminded of the teachings of Christ and other great religious teachers, about taking care of the least amongst us equating to taking care of an angel or of Christ himself. The same global disease, the cancer of economic over-growth and abuse of resources that is crushing the polar bear has been crushing many other living creatures for a very long time - including human creatures, children "not ours", both within and without our national borders. Blessings to you on your quest, Mercia, Australia
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